27 September 2006

First Jupiter image from New Horizons

A few weeks ago, the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on New Horizons took its first pictures of Jupiter. The spacecraft was close to solar opposition, so the moons in front of Jupiter, Europa and Io, were leaving large shadows on the planet's swirling clouds. This picture was released yesterday:




LORRI doesn't have color capability, but Ralph will be sending back color pictures of the gas giant during the rendezvous/gravity assist in January and February. One thing I like about this picture is that it's the first image of Jupiter that I've ever seen that doesn't show the Great Red Spot.

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